Manifesto Review: The Labour Party

The Labour Party manifesto vows that they ‘…will put climate change at the heart of our foreign policy’ and aims to create one million green jobs in the UK. They envisage Britain as a world leader in low carbon technologies and has as target net zero emissions. Climate change is being highlighted as a national and international security risk and the importance of global emissions peaking around 2020 is stressed, however it is fairly sparse on actual policies.

Key policies:

– Net zero emissions;

– Rich countries should provide support for poorer countries to combat climate change;

– Making Britain a world leader in low carbon technologies;

– Create 1 million green jobs;

– Carbon removed from electricity supply by 2030;

– A mix of energy sources needed and nuclear power is part of it;

– Investments into Carbon Capture & Storage

Analysis:

The Labour Party manifesto is filled with rather grandiose statements, such as ‘We will put climate change at the heart of our foreign policy’ as the goal of creating one million green jobs. However there is an apparent lack of detail throughout the very short segments on energy and environmental policy. This severely undermines the credibility of the Labour Party’s statements. They correctly identifies the risks to national and international security that climate change poses and the importance of global emissions peaking around 202, however this is where it all goes wrong. There is no specific policies proposed to achieve this; it is merely empty words and nothing more. It is admirable what they want to achieve, but in terms of credibility they must back up their claims with policy. The same goes for their tetracycline for sale online ambitious goal of Britain as a world leader in low carbon technologies.

It is also making a promise that, at face value, seems very ambitious – the removal or carbon from the electricity supply by 2030. At first this might seem lie a sensible policy, which it is, however they are using deceiving language. Electricity and energy supply are two very different things and decarbonising electricity, whilst a very important step, is far from enough. In order for a sustainable shift away from climate changing emissions the energy supply, which is considerably larger than the electricity supply, must be decarbonised. It is worth noting that the Party remains mildly pro-nuclear, a stance that has become increasingly challenged internally. A mix of different energy sources is important, but the overall problem of a lack of actual policies continues also in terms of this.

The manifesto also contains a short part relating to the Paris climate change summit in December. They highlight that it is the developing world that will be hardest hit by climate change, largely due to a lack of resources. It is important to highlight this as the Party does and it is one of the main deadlocks in the international negotiations. However, as stated before, there is a clear lack of direction or policy in this field. It turns into a lot of ambitious-sounding statements, but without actually setting out how they want to achieve it. In terms of energy and the environment, the Labour Party should revisit this manifesto and make it credible by actually suggesting policies to achieve their goals.

John Lindberg is a former policy adviser to Sir Jamie McGrigor MSP and a self-declared science geek. His main interests are energy and environmental issues, with a burning passion for nuclear power. He recently graduated with a First from the University of Glasgow, MA (Hons) in Politics.

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